I'm seeing a lot of discussion in this thread about how martials need a boost and casters need a nerf. Martials (at least as presented in 5th Ed) do suffer some endemic problems that I've yet to see discussed in this thread, but I am surprised that nobody has brought up the harm that the de-emphasis of money, magic items, and crafting has done. I could vomit forth an essay on the subject, but I'll make it brief.
Money was supposed to be the ambrosia that allowed some degree of parity between classes. In concept, martials didn't need a bunch of class features, because they were "supposed to" accumulate (either by finding, buying or crafting) an expansive arsenal of useful items that casters either didn't particularly need or couldn't really use. Winged Boots, for instance, could of course be a boon to a Wizard, but they would really expand the options available to a Paladin, and only the latter could effectively use armor with the Reflecting property. Heck, being able to shop around for an array of potions meant that a Barbarian could have access to spells like Invisibility, Haste, and Tongues.
Similarly, the loss of Use Magic Device is just plain insulting to Rogues. The option for a sufficiently rich or lucky Rogue to unexpectedly pull out a Meteor Swarm or Time Stop when the situation seemed dicey is now absent, save for one archetype that can't do it reliably anyways. Even using wands and low-level scrolls to play a budget version of Inspector Gadget is gone. Can't have another class stepping on the toes of that sad, oppressed Wizard, I guess.
No, it wasn't perfect. Yes, 5th Edition has a list of magic items and rules for buying them tucked away in some splatbook or another. But between the "you don't need magic items, wink wink" design philosophy, absence of crafting, and no reliable rules for shopping around in the core system (not to mention the ludicrous prices!), how the heck is a Fighter supposed to stay stocked up on the good stuff that would actually keep them relevant at level seventeen?
